Florida retailers are calling out U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., for opposing legislation that would require online retailers to pay state sales tax.

DeSantis, whose district includes St. Johns County, was at a news conference Tuesday organized by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. The group strongly opposes the bill, which is dubbed the “Marketplace Fairness Act.”

Retailers with physical locations in a state are subject to sales tax, which in Florida is 6 percent. Groups that represent those so-called “bricks and mortar” stores, including the Florida Retail Federation, have argued that they are at a disadvantage because online retailers are not required to pay the sales tax.

Over the past few years, Florida lawmakers have failed to pass bills addressing the issue. Gov. Rick Scott said he would support the move only if it’s revenue-neutral.

The issue has made fiscal conservatives squeamish because it can be cast as a tax increase that could hurt small businesses.

“…the tax and the related compliance costs will make it more difficult for small businesses with an online sales component to compete with their larger competitors,” DeSantis wrote in a May op-ed in the Daytona Beach News Journal.

After the Washington news conference, which also featured U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, the Florida Retail Federation released a statement slamming his opposition.

“Our retailers lawfully collect state and local sales taxes, which puts them at a disadvantage to all the remote sellers who do not,” Rick Mcallister, the group’s president and CEO. “Florida’s retailers are rightfully disappointed that Rep. DeSantis would line up on the side of the remote sellers outside Florida who are taking our jobs.”

The legislation passed the Senate on a 69-27 vote, but faces a much less certain future in the GOP-led House.

The federal jockeying comes at a time when online retailer Amazon has agreed to spend $300 million to build three warehouses in Florida. Though specifics are not yet known, the move means Amazon will pay state sales tax.

Underlying the touchy nature of the issue, Scott originally rejected the Amazon deal without explanation.

“We were ultimately not able to reach an agreement,” Melissa Sellers, a Scott spokeswoman, told The Associated Press after the May rejection.

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Is there some kind of price you pay for being wrong about everything? Getting rid of Medicare and turning it into a voucher program that wouldn't cover seniors' costs? Blocking immigration reform that would slash the budget deficit? Doing a McCarthy-style witch hunt on the NSA's program to gather information that foiled fifty plots for homeland terrorist attacks?

I asked a woman the other day - an ordinary old lady that I was talking to, a DeSantis supporter - what the biggest problem facing America was today. She said, "Welfare." Then I asked her how many people she thought were on welfare in America. She said, "60%." So I asked her what the next most pressing problem was. She said, "Abortion."